Lindisfarne - Great Western Festival - Bardney Linconshire UK - 28th May 1972
taper = radiosjohn
Philips mono cassette recorder (EMI C60 tape) > WAV> audacity flac level 8
It was 50 years ago today! 28th May 1972
A bit of background information as to how this recording came about
I had previously been to my 1st festival the year before - The Weeley Festival 'of Progressive Music' and then a year later decided to go for this one with a friend from Bristol
The Great Western Express Festival was billed as the 'festival they could not stop' and was held at Tupholme/Bardney near Lincoln UK over the period Friday 26th May 1972 to Monday 29th May 1972. The advance ticket price of �4.50 got you four days worth of music
A great site to get all the information you need to know about these UK festivals is https://www.ukrockfestivals.com/
A third friend who couldn't make it asked if I would record a few bands on my Philips mono cassette recorder. He bought me a tenner's worth of EMITAPES - not the best quality but all he/we could afford at the time. They were a mixture of C60's and C120's
So off we went on the train - badly equipped with just plastic bin type bags to sleep in/shelter from the elements. It was a typical British May Bank Holiday weekend - the weather was mostly windy and wet
With the limited amount of tapes I had to be selective as to what I recorded and also I was given a list of bands to record by my friend. For this reason - for example - I did not record Genesis or Joe Cocker - which I have regretted ever since - but heyho at least I captured some which in the circumstances was quite an achievement. There was a lot of tape turning and using blank bits at the end. Overall I recorded some as follows Beach Boys (A NAB here), Jackson Heights, Atomic Rooster, Humble Pie, The Faces, Slade, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Heads Hands and Feet, Rory Gallagher (Days 1 & 2), Wishbone Ash, Alexis, Buddy Miles, Roxy Music, The Strawbs, Don McLean, Stone the Crows and what is here in this torrent - Lindisfarne. Some are only very partial and not very clear (rain etc). The rain cleared for Lindisfarnes performance and the sound is not too bad
This recording is not too bad taking everything into consideration. I digitised all these back in the 90's to try and combat further deterioration in the master tapes. I really could have done with a player with azimuth adjustment to do the transfer and have not done any processing at all to the sound. This recording was spread across a couple of sides of a C60 so you will be able to spot the join.
Listening to the intro it appears that the first number played was 'Mandolin King' (mentioned as being the B side of the Fog on the Tyne single) which I inexplicably cut ? Not sure why ?
I then cut 'Scotch Mist' after Together Forever (again reason unknown) I think they may have done Clear White Light part 2 as an encore which again for an unknown reason (Probably a 'tape saving exercise') I did not record. I got this encore information from a setlist site which may not be 100% correct anyway as other tracks do not match what I recorded
Since the days of the Philips mono cassette recorder I have progressed onto the Sony D6 then the Zoom H2 and finally I use the Sony PCM10 - still recording when I can - my next gig to capture is hopefully The Smile (Radiohead)
I've never seen any other recording of this festival (I did upload one day of the Rory Gallagher sets I recorded a while ago - I have his other performance to do still) or Weeley recordings (other than T Rex, King Crimson and VDGG) - if anyone has any tucked away please dig them out. I do remember seeing 'mics on poles' near the front in the audience at this festival! One day they could get tossed away as of no interest and lost forever. That reminds me I must do that 1974 Pink Floyd concert I recorded next
The complete set list (including missing/not recorded tracks) is as far as I can tell:
01 - Mandolin King - missing - not recorded
02 - Together Forever
03 - Scotch Mist - missing - not recorded
04 - Meet me on the corner
05 - Newcastle Brown Ale
06 - Alright on the night
07 - Lady Eleanor
08 - Fog on the Tyne
09 - We can swing together
10 - Encore - possibly Clear White Light - missing - not recorded
As usual do what you like with this recording